


Radiation Burns

by holmes221b



Series: The Adventures of fem!Bones [3]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: F/M, Genderswap, Language, M/M, alt universe, medical gore
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-20
Updated: 2014-02-20
Packaged: 2018-01-13 05:06:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,856
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1213819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/holmes221b/pseuds/holmes221b
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“I wasn’t exposed to radium, you moron!”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Radiation Burns

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the hc_bingo prompt of “burns”. I had no idea how nuclear power plants actually work, at the time I wrote this (and I still don’t). I do know how radiation works, and you can trust me, it’s completely accurate in this fic.

Nora had been examining a colonist when something in the colony exploded, knocking her off of her feet.  
"What the hell was that?!" the doctor demanded, dusting herself off as she spoke.  
"Don’t know," her patient replied, "but whatever it was, it wasn’t good."  
Nora tried her communicator.  
"McCoy to _Enterprise_ ,” she spoke into it, but she got no response, not even static.  
"Something must be blocking the signal, Doctor," the colonist suggested.  
"That or it was damaged when I fell down," Nora growled.  
"Why don’t we go out and look for ourselves?" the colonist suggested.  
Nora shrugged.  
"Might as well," she agreed.

~*~

Jim frowned at the sound of angry beeping coming from Spock’s station.  
"Spock, what’s going on?" the captain demanded.  
The colony’s main power generator just exploded, Captain,” the half-Vulcan reported.  
"Any casualties?" Jim asked, pushing aside his concerns for his wife for the moment.  
"The radiation from the explosion is interfering with our sensors, Captain," Spock reported.  
Jim turned to Lieutenant Uhura.  
"Uhura, raise the colony," he ordered.  
"Sir, the explosion is interfering with communications as well," Uhura reported moments later.  
Jim sighed, making up his mind.  
"Spock, you have the conn," he said, before ordering Uhura to ready an away team to head down to the colony to access the situation.  
"Captain, the levels of radiation down there," Spock remarked, "is much too high to send down anyone."  
"Bones is still down there, Spock," Jim pointed out.  
"I am aware of this, Captain," Spock coolly replied, "and as it is highly likely that she is already dead, I believe it is unwise to endanger the lives of other members of your crew to rescue her when we can wait for the radiation to dissipate first."  
"Bones could still be alive," Jim challenged Spock. "We can’t just leave her down there!"

~*~

The colonist had wandered off, leaving Nora alone at the center of the colony. The doctor sighed.  
"What should I do?" she asked the empty air, "I’m stranded here until the _Enterprise_ figures out how to break thru whatever is interfering with communications.”  
"Doctor McCoy!" called a voice.  
Nora turned to face the speaker.  
"Natalie," she said, "what is it?"  
The young woman paused to regain her breath before replying.  
"There’s been an explosion in the power generator, Doctor," Natalie informed Nora, "and the containment vessel has been destroyed."  
"Containment vessel?" Nora asked, confused.  
Natalie nodded.  
"Yeah, the vessel that keeps the radiation away from the workers at the power plant," she said.  
“ _Radiation_!?” exclaimed Nora.  
"Yeah," Natalie continued, "the entire settlement is immediately downwind of the plant, but we should be fine."  
Nora scowled.  
"Are you willing to stake your life on that?" the doctor inquired.  
"I suppose I am," Natalie replied, "but I don’t know very much about radiation."  
"Clearly," Nora muttered, "Make sure everyone stays indoors as much as possible. And if they have to go outside, cover up— _any_ exposed skin will be a way in for radiation.”  
"Okay, Doctor," Natalie replied, though Nora had a sinking feeling that her words were lost on the young woman.  
"If anyone needs medical attention, take them to the hospital," the doctor directed, then waved Natalie along on her way.

~*~

Jim sat in his quarters, alone. Spock had posted two security officers in the corridor outside his quarters, to ensure that the captain did nothing exceptionally fool-hardy—like sneak down to the planet and locate his wife.  
 **"Bridge to Kirk,"** Sulu’s voice interrupted Jim’s glum thoughts.  
"Kirk here," Jim replied, "what is it, Sulu?"  
 **"The radiation plume has shifted away from the colony, sir,"** the helmsman explained, **"We’re only getting one life sign in the entire colony, though."**  
"Doctor McCoy?" Jim asked hopefully.  
 **"The radiation she must have been exposed to is interfering with her transponder, sir,"** Sulu replied sincerely, **"We are unable to even pinpoint her exact location, let alone resume tracking vitals."**  
Jim sighed.  
"What does Spock say?" he asked.  
 **"He’s leading an away team to locate Doctor McCoy once they have rescued the sole survivor, sir,"** Sulu admitted.  
Jim scowled.  
"Why didn’t he take me?" the captain demanded.  
 **"I think he’s acting out of some misguided desire to protect you, sir."**

~*~

As soon as she returned to the hospital, Nora scanned herself with her tricorder. It beeped angrily at her, and Nora swore crossly as she realized that the radiation from the explosion must have affected its ability to function properly, leaving her with no way to accurately measure how extensive her exposure to the radiation was.  
"Well, you know you’ve probably been exposed to at least a shallow dose, Nora," she told herself, "so keep your hands away from your face until you’ve washed them."  
Discarding her tricorder on a nearby chair, Nora made her way thru the hospital for the locker rooms.  
"Okay, so at least there’s no body here to get an eyeful," she muttered to herself as she stripped off her clothes (which she then disposed of in a nearby hazardous waste bin).  
Once she was completely naked, Nora took a fifteen-minute water shower, using antibacterial hand soap liberally to clean herself.

~*~

Ensign Butler landed the shuttle in a clearing near the colony’s hospital.  
"Ensign, Butler, you and Nurse Chapel will remain inside the shuttle," Spock ordered, "while Lieutenant Davis and I will locate the sole survivor."  
"What about Doctor McCoy?" Nurse Chapel asked.  
"If the doctor is in fact deceased, then we will also track down her remains, if possible," the half-Vulcan replied.

~*~

Nora was pleased to discover that the hospital locker rooms had a working replicator, and she was quick to order a towel to dry herself off.  
Once she had finished with the towel, she disposed of it in the hazardous waste bin, then she ordered a new set of scrubs from the replicator.  
Nora was just pulling her (new) shirt on up over her head when she heard footsteps.  
"Hello?" she called hesitantly, "is someone out there?"  
The footsteps raced towards her in answer, and Nora soon found herself in the presence of two Starfleet officers in protective suits.  
"Do you have a spare one for me, by any chance?" the doctor asked somewhat hopefully.  
 **"Doctor McCoy,"** the taller officer said, **"are you well?"**  
"For the time being," Nora replied, "but I don’t know how severe my exposure was—the radiation interfered with my tricorder."  
Spock—for that was who had spoken—nodded.  
"Did you find any other survivors, Spock?" Nora asked as the half-Vulcan pulled out a suit for the doctor out of his pack.  
 **"No, Doctor,"** Spock replied, before directing Nora to put the suit on.

~*~

Jim frowned as a nurse told him he needed to go into his wife’s office and stay there.  
"Why?" the captain had promptly demanded.  
"You’ll get in the way, sir," the nurse was quick to reply, "and Doctor McCoy has standing orders for us to keep you out of the way when she’s not on duty."  
Jim sat down in Nora’s chair, behind her desk.  
"I’m going to go now, sir," the nurse informed Jim, "you are going to stay here until I or one of the other nurses comes for you, right?"  
"Yes, I’ll stay put," the captain promised.  
"Good, ‘cause Doctor McCoy will have my hide if you got underfoot."

~*~

As soon as Chapel and Nora arrived in Sickbay, the doctor was hustled off to a private recovery room, where M’Benga was waiting for her.  
The sound of the wand scanning her somehow soothed Nora, and she finally began to dare hope that she just might survive this mess after all.  
"Nurse Chapel" called M’Benga, summoning the head nurse.  
"Yes, Doctor?" Chapel asked.  
"I need a hypo of potassium iodine," he told her.  
"M’Benga?" Nora called, her voice tinged with worry, "what ain’t you tellin’ me?"  
"Not to worry, Lenora," M’Benga assured her in his deep baritone, "the potassium iodine is just a preliminary measure."  
"Preliminary?" Nora questioned, "M’Benga, I’m not an idiot, I know what potassium iodine is for—it’s a treatment used in _advance_ of radiation exposure.”  
"It also does some good afterwards as well, Lenora," the dark-skinned man reminded her.  
"Spock told me how bad the radiation was down there," Nora informed M’Benga, "how long do I have?"  
"Lenora, you don’t have radiation sickness," M’Benga replied.  
"Bullshit," Nora shot back, "I was down there when the power plant blew up. I even went outside while the radiation plume was over the colony, M’Benga."  
"You weren’t outside long enough to receive a high enough dose, Lenora."  
Nora scowled at the Vulcan specialist, but her reply was cut short by the sudden appearance of the captain in the room.  
"Here, Doctor M’Benga," Jim said, handing M’Benga a hypospray, "Nurse Chapel told me to give this to you."  
Nora turned her glare onto Jim.  
"What are you doing down here?" she demanded.  
"Spock’s acting captain right now, Bones," Jim replied, "he was concerned that I would do something stupid to rescue you."  
With a soft hiss, M’Benga administered the hypospray into the side of Nora’s neck.  
"I’ll come back to check in on how you’re doing at the start of gamma shift, Lenora," the Vulcan specialist informed his patient, before leaving the room.  
As soon as the doors swished shut behind M’Benga, Jim sat down in the chair beside the biobed.  
"So, how are you feeling, Bones?" Jim asked.  
"Fine," Nora curtly replied.  
Jim cocked an eyebrow at his wife.  
"According to M’Benga, I didn’t receive any more than a shallow dose," Nora clarified, "thus, I am fine."  
"But you were exposed to a high amount of radiation," Jim objected.  
Nora nodded.  
"Yes, I was," she acknowledged, "but not for a long enough length of time for it to be fatal."  
"And the potassium iodine?"  
"Just a precautionary measure, Jim," Nora assured her husband.  
"I’m glad you got lucky, Bones," Jim informed Nora, "I don’t know what I’d do without you."  
"Let’s hope you never have to find out," Nora declared.  
"Computer, lights off," Jim ordered suddenly.  
"What the hell, Jim?!" demanded Nora as the lights turned off, sending the room into semi-darkness, the monitor above the biobed the only source of light.  
"Aw," groaned Jim, "you’re not glowing in the dark."  
Nora glared at her husband.  
"Computer, lights eighty-five percent," she snarled, and the lights turned back on.  
Jim blinked in the sudden brightness, but Nora, who’d closed her eyes before ordering the computer to turn the lights back on, simply resumed glaring at her husband.  
"I wasn’t exposed to radium, you moron," the doctor snapped.  
"But—" Jim started to speak, but Nora was in full-on lecture mode now.  
"Just because something’s radioactive doesn’t mean it glows in the dark, Jim," she ranted, "Not all radioactive materials emit visible light like radium does."  
"I know that," Jim reminded her, "you really need to calm down, Bones, before you burst a vein or something."  
"Jim, by all rights, I should be _dead_ right now," Nora stated, "juts like Natalie and all the rest of the colonists."  
Jim pulled the doctor into his arms, comforting her as she began to cry. 


End file.
